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skype sigh

Filed under: General — Thomas @ 16:29

2007-12-20
16:29

Is Skype's UI as horrible on Windows as it is on Linux ?

I am trying to do something as basic as saving the contents of my chat window. But ...

  • I don't have a menu toolbar
  • I don't have a right-click menu in the text window
  • If I start clickdragging in the text window, then going down to the edge of the window, the text window doesn't scroll to the end of the text, like just about any other app I have
  • Ctrl-A doesn't do anything
  • There is no cursor, so doing shift-(cursor keys) doesn't do anything either

These are all the ways I know about other apps let you select text.

Am I missing something obvious, or is it just not possible to save my Skype chat history ?

9 Comments

  1. Skype Bugtracker:
    https://developer.skype.com/jira/

    Comment by FunkyM — 2007-12-20 @ 17:17

  2. Suggestion: don’t use Skype. Use SIP-based VoIP phones as Gizmo.
    It has same voice quality and cheaper prices. Unless all you friends are in Skype and you talk to them for free…

    Comment by Avi Alkalay — 2007-12-20 @ 17:57

  3. They’re probably just following Microsoft’s lead with Vista. Menus are so 80s, you know.

    Comment by Simon Howard — 2007-12-20 @ 18:04

  4. Clickdragging should work. Probably this is one of the problems that happen when you have Qt3 and Qt4 installed at the same time. There are several problems like this mentioned in the Skype forums.

    Comment by Raffael Luthiger — 2007-12-20 @ 19:05

  5. What about trying:

    1. Mouse click at start of text.
    2. Scroll to bottom.
    3. Shift mouse click at end of text.

    Untested by me.

    Comment by Ryan — 2007-12-20 @ 19:37

  6. I believe Skype will save your chat history automatically, so you can ask for the chat history when you are in a chat window with the contact (there’s a “Chat History” button at the top of my chat windows in 1.4.0.118)

    Comment by Michael R. Head — 2007-12-20 @ 19:59

  7. Gnome has had a VoIP client since years : ekiga (ex-gnomemeeting)…

    Comment by Snark — 2007-12-20 @ 21:19

  8. Actually the windows one is definitely horrible in comparison, very cluttered. I think it’s a bit cruel to describe the lack of text-selection love in the conversation window as a horrible UI though.

    Interesting that it’s not picking up basics such as the context menu from Qt, I’ll just look at the sou^H^H^H oh wait….

    Comment by jcs — 2007-12-20 @ 21:47

  9. I encourage you to use a SIP based application.

    Skype is a closed source software based in a non-standard protocol. Standards should be the roots of any evolution on computer and communications.

    In this way, if you want to talk with Skype users, you can use a gateway. I don’t know if there are free gateways for SkypeSIP.

    Comment by Pedro Martínez Juliá — 2007-12-20 @ 22:18

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